Hole of the Week: Terra Greens' No. 2

Why: The No. 2 hole at Terra Greens is a par five and it's 480 yards off the tee for the men and 400 yards for the ladies.

The ground slopes from right to left the entire length of the fairway. There is a big pond filled with lilly pads on the left side of the fairway near the tees, but even a poorly hit first shot is unlikely to wind up in it unless your ball makes one of those sharp left turns.

Another hazard on this fairway is the rock. At the 267-yard mark from the men's tee, a boulder sits organically from the ground. On a really bad day, your ball could hit the rock and bounce in any direction.

The greens at Terra Greens are impressively large, and the No. 2 is probably in the 10,000-square-foot range. The bent grass looks great due to the optimal amount of rainfall this spring and summer. But, like the fairway, the green slopes from right to left, rather steeply. Therefore, there are no easy putts on the No. 2 hole.

Terra Greens is a rare commodity among Pocono golf courses for one reason. All the water features are man made. The large pond on the No. 2 used to be a swamp. The water in this pond comes from run-off from the golf course and the J.T. Lambert Intermediate School bus parking lot.

In the 1960's, when the Zukawski family dairy farm was turned into a golf course, they got permission to excavate this swamp and turn it into a pond.

The pond is dairly deep, almost 10 feet, and stocked with bass, pike, blue gills and catfish to create a habitat. And right now, there are a lot of lilly pads with huge roots about four inches in diameter.

Many man-made ponds will turn back into swamps unless maintained. This means spending time, money and materials on maintenance.

Course superintendent, Bryan Zukawski, has a degree in Agronomy from Penn State and is the "go-to" guy for an education in chemicals used on golf courses. Right now, he is waiting for a permit from the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission to kill some of the lilly pads in the pond. Golf course superintendents cannot spray chemicals without obtaining permission from the appropriate governmental agency.

The chemical he will use has a low toxicity so it will kill the plants, but not the fish. He will use three-quarters of a gallon at a cost of about $75. Zukawski will row out on the pond in a boat and spray the lilly pads directly with a backpack sprayer. Asked if he will wear a respirator, he said, "Absolutely." They used to pull the lilly pads out by hand, but Zukawski said it was a waste of time because they always grew back. About a week after they are sprayed, the lilly pads will yellow and Zukawski will then pull them out.

For it's challenging lie, it's enormous healthy green and Bryan Zukawski's willingness to talk about chemicals, we highlight hole No. 2 at Terra Greens this week's hole of the week.